


Sword Made of Shadows

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [144]
Category: Norse Mythology, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-22
Updated: 2014-05-22
Packaged: 2018-01-26 03:24:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1672895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is woven to be the weapon to destroy his enemies when he is denied her brothers. Then banished as surely as they from his side by fearful gods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sword Made of Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Hel, becoming Maria Hill  
> Prompt: Need  
> Alternate Universe: Ofinn Börn

One brother is woven to wind through all the worlds and gather their secrets.

One brother is woven to stand guard, a fortress bulwark against the dangers of the worlds.

She is woven to be the weapon to destroy his enemies when he is denied her brothers. Then banished as surely as they from his side by fearful gods.

She wanders the worlds, following one brother's glittering paths, earning a name for herself in destroying those who she remembers had harmed her father. They call her Hel, call her the destroyer, the ice queen who steals souls to build an army of the dishonored to bring about Ragnarok.

There is one world where they do not call her so, where they do not know her name and her face, for none of her father's enemies had gone there. It is a quiet place, Midgard, and it is where she can find both her brothers. Where they can gather and plan and find their feet in a universe that does not take kindly to those made by the magic of a man.

Here, she has many names, many lives, over the years. Watches the mortals live fleeting lives and build themselves to ever greater heights.

She sees her brother following one boy, and hears his whispers from the other brother about how great the mortal boy could be, and she makes herself a new life. Makes herself into the seeming of a man, a scientist who creates a formula that will change the world - stolen by one mad mortal who doesn't understand what she does, and pays the price for it.

She could earn a new name in revenging that affront, but instead walks away with the secrets of the formula locked safely inside her head.

The brother whose mortal she will make a god is gone when she returns to the place where it begins. When she takes the sickly boy and a science that is beyond the knowledge of mortals, and will be for a time yet, and weaves a magic that she thinks her father will be proud of.

It is fitting that she pays a price in blood for the making.

Her hurts heal slowly, and she hides in a coil of safety between worlds, held in the embrace of her brother. Listening to his whispers, the harm done to their brother by monsters, and she can do nothing to help. Can do nothing but wait until she is strong enough to make a new life for herself, weave herself into a mortal family as a bright and driven girl-child with a plan for her life.

And when Maria Hill is recruited to SHIELD, no one sees the triumphant smile of the weapon beneath.

**Author's Note:**

> I had intended Hel be Maria Hill. I had not intended the rest - if anything, I would have thought Jörmungandr would have been Erskine, if Erskine were not just some brilliant mortal ahead of his time. I think it will work with the rest of the AU, though, and now that I have all three of them established, I might get the muses to give me some more that is more plotty, or goes past where canon currently stands.


End file.
